Iranian Exports to EEU to Enjoy 80-100% Duty Cut
EghtesadOnline: Exports to the member states of Eurasian Economic Union, namely Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, will either be fully exempt from customs duty or enjoy a duty cut of up to 80%, deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, Mojtaba Khosrotaj, has announced.
A draft agreement between Iran and EEU was signed in Yerevan, Armenia, on July 5 after more than a year of negotiations for levying preferential export tariffs on 350 Iranian industrial products in return for 180 commodities from EEU.
The agreement was signed by Khosrotaj, who is also chairman of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, and Trade Minister of EEU Veronica Nikishina, IRNA reported.
Khosrotaj said the preliminary deal is to be finalized by October this year, according to Financial Tribune.
Noting that exports of construction materials, including tiles and ceramics, to EEU will be subject to 80% customs duty cut, the TPO chief added that downstream petrochemical products, cables and pipes as well as metal and glass products are to enjoy a range of tax and duty exemptions.
A Russian Agriculture Ministry’s report released late June after negotiations on a temporary agreement for the creation of an Iran-EEU free trade zone said Iran is ready to make tariff concessions on a wide range of agricultural products, excluding wheat and refined oil, as well as mineral water and cigarettes.
“In its maximum proposal presented at the round, Iran demonstrated its readiness to make concessions under the terms requested by member states, in almost all items EEU is interested in, excluding wheat and refined oil, as well as mineral water and cigarettes,” the ministry was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS.
The Eurasian Economic Union is an international integration economic association of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. EEU came into existence from January 1, 2015, after it superseded the Eurasian Economic Community that functioned from 2000 to 2014.
The treaty on the establishment of EEU was signed by the presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on May 29, 2014, in Astana.
The union has an integrated single market of 183 million people and a gross domestic product of over $4 trillion.
EEU calls for the free movement of goods, capital, services and people and provides for common transport, agriculture and energy policies, with provisions for a single currency and greater integration in the future.